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Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life

Bible Reading Plans

• Plan One: New Testament Only
• Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
• Plan Three: New Testament + History
• Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3

Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.

Extras

Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute

Overflow

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(Today’s Reading)

YHWH in the Old Testament

(Essay Installment 9)

The End of the Old Testament Age

The Jews, from whom we receive the Old Testament (though they, of course, don’t call it that), stopped adding writings to it after the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi left the scene. That was the 5th century BC. The Jews consider this to have been the end of the prophetic age. That is, they consider all their Scriptures (the Old Testament) to have been written by prophets of YHWH – beginning with Moses…and that this long line of prophets ended with the three men mentioned above. Thus the Jews consider the biblical age to have run from creation until shortly after the rebuilding of the temple.

We can accept the Jewish version of the Old Testament (what they call the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible), including its history, because Jesus did. Consider what He said to His disciples:

Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

Luke 24:44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Consider also what He said to a foreigner:

John 4:22 “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

Consider also what He said to, and about, His Jewish opponents…for they believed in the same Scriptures He did:

John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;
John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

Matthew 23:2 …“The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;
Matthew 23:3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.

Consider also that there is nowhere in the New Testament where Jesus argued with the Pharisees about what books did and didn’t belong in the Old Testament. He argued with them about many things, but the contents of the Scriptures was not one of those things.

Thus the end of the Old Testament age and the contents of its Scriptures are clearly marked for us by the Jews, and ratified by Jesus.

The beginning of the Old Testament can be marked in a couple of meaningful ways. First and more obviously, it can be marked by the days of creation in Genesis 1. Second and less obviously, it can be marked by the man who wrote Genesis: Moses. Both are valid. The rationale for the first is that the Jews considered many of the Genesis patriarchs as prophets – beginning with Adam. And even God Himself called Abraham a prophet in Genesis 20:7. Enough said.

As for the value of the second framing, consider that Moses was the first writing prophet. Therefore, we may say that God instituted the Scriptures through Moses. YHWH did not give Adam anything to write for subsequent generations. Nor Abraham, nor any of the men of God who came before Moses. Why then Moses? Because he was the first prophet to have a nation surrounding him to preserve and protect his writings.

As Americans, we appreciate the founding documents of our nation. But we wouldn’t have those writings if we didn’t have the nation. A nation has ways of protecting and preserving documents that individuals and families cannot match. No wonder the Lord did not initiate of a collection of sacred writings for us until there was a mechanism for safeguarding them. Thus the man with a nation around him was the first to write on behalf of YHWH.

We may say therefore that the Old Testament age began with Adam, but began being documented with Moses, and ended with the prophecies of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.